What I Wish I Knew: Giveaways (#3)

I had no idea what a giveaway was nor did I know how to do one. I would look at all those famous book bloggers and be like what the heck! How can I do that. I also had no ideas of the benefits of a giveaway. The other thing was I was really scared to do one, I did not know how to set one up, when to do it, or where. Nor did I know how to even give a prize away. So when the opportunity was given to me, well I almost rolled over dead. So I am about to tell you the benefits and tips to doing a Giveaway.

1. What's the point of a giveaway:

Believe it or not they really help in promotion, which is really great for you and the product/book that you are promoting. You are helping out your blog, by doing a giveaway you are driving in more traffic and people are seeing your blog. Which would have been nice to when I started blogging. You want followers and more readers well this is one way to do it. Now I am not saying host when every single day, those are hard to keep track of. But if you reach mile stones in your blog do a giveaway. I plan on doing a big giveaway when I reach my 100 follower's mark. Not only that they are just super fun :)

2. How to host a giveaway:

Well there are a few things that need to be done!

First: Terms and Conditions

Who can do the giveaway (Adults, teens, everyone, what countries, is it international)

Dates need to be included

How the prize will be given to the winner

How the winner will be contacted

How will the winner's information be kept safe

How a winner will be selected

Will a fee have to be paid

Second: What types of giveaway do you want to do
There are three:

Sweepstake Giveaway: This is where someone gave you the prize to be given away, the person is chosen by the luck of the draw

Contest: You are the one picking the very best of all the contestants. Winner is chosen by the establishments of the contest.

Lottery: The winner or entree has to give something in return to get the prize that they want.

Third: Prizes
You can do many things for prizes:

You can get a book from a author, publisher, or company and ask them to participate

You can get crafty and make cute things

If you have books you don't want then you can do that as a prize (or if family member's have books that are not wanted anymore that works to)

Last: Tools to do the giveaway
There are only two that I would really recommend, because of my personal liking to them:

1. Rafflecopter: It is super easy to use and can be done really quickly. The only problem is, is that you need a membership for a few things. Which is not a problem but if you want to use a photo to tell people what you are giving away that becomes hard. But go with the free version guys!!!

2. Giveaway Tools: This one is really great and the free version gives you everything that you need. I love how simple it is, and I really prefer using this one, once I found out that it existed. It also offers more social media choice which is really great!